Posted on 10/06/2007 4:40:25 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Pair accused of peddling pieces from F-4, F-14 aircraft over the Internet
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
10/05/2007 12:09:12 PM MDT
Federal prosecutors on Friday announced charges against two Ogden men accused of illegally selling parts for fighter jets over the Internet.
Abraham Trujillo, 61, and David Waye, 22, both are charged with three counts of illegal arms exporting in federal court in Salt Lake City.
The U.S. attorney's office says federal immigration agents discovered a Web site with listings of F-14 parts offered by Trujillo and his Ogden business, NSN Specialists. Over the next several months in 2006 and 2007, the office said, agents purchased cable assemblies and other F-14 and F-4 jet items from Trujillo.
All the items required a license to export, the office said, and Trujillo did not have one.
Prosecutors did not specify what Waye's role was. "Trujillo and his associates allegedly made attempts to send the items out of the country, making efforts to disguise the true nature of the goods," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a prepared statement.
The charges say the pair exported the parts to Canada, but the information does not specify how they obtained the parts or who purchased items.
Representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Air Force did not immediately return calls seeking comment, and neither did Trujillo and Waye.
Trujillo and Waye will receive a summons to appear before a federal magistrate. Penalties can carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count.
ncarlisle@sltrib.com
Immigration agents? Maybe ICE agents?
The F-14s sole operator is Iran. Several countries; Spain, Greece, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Egypt, Iran and the United States, are still flying the Phantom II.
You're giving those agencies too much credit. They can't find an illegal in a Mexican protest parade.
True, but the F-4 is still in operation with other air forces I believe. Don't the Turks still have them?
Are you sure the F-4 is still active in Japan? Curious that you list the U.S., I guess the drone program is an operation of sorts.
Darn. I guess I missed the part where Michael Chertoff, David Aguilar and Julie Myers were leading the operation. Sorry!
Well,I was referring to Iran as it is the only nation which uses both these types & only one which cannot buy them legitimately from the US government.It would have the greatest need to buy spares from under the table.
Japan still uses F-4s(I believe that the last F-4 to be built was built by Mitsubishi in the early 80s).Their requirement for 90 aircraft for which the Eurofighter & F-15E are competing is for a replacement for the F-4.
http://fc.airliners.net/photos/middle/7/4/5/1276547.jpg
Photo date: 18 September 2007
and RF-4EJs.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1265432/M/
Photo date: 26 August 2007
The 82d ATRS flies both manned and unmanned Phantoms mostly from Tyndall and Holloman.
Photo date: 5 October 2007
The Iranians can get F-4 spares from several sources, including Israel.
I thought such transfers stopped after the 8 year war.
I want a Sparrow missile. The serial numbers are over 14,000 now. Just as a home defense weapon. No, wait. I could burn down a ‘hood just by launching it.
Nope there are plenty of schmucks in Israel, like Pollard, who hate America and still make deals with the devil. Over the years a lot of F-14 parts made their way to Tehran via Israel.
Mmm, that's an F-16.
Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Turkey. According to CombatAircraft.com
Might be a little out of date, but the list is at least close. According to MilAvia The Luftwaffe is the largest user.
Where would Israel get F-14 unique parts? They never operated the Tomcat. Only the US Navy and Iran ever operated it.
Israel retired the last of their Phantoms in May of 2004.
You do understand that on the black market, parts destined for one country often get shipped to other countries first, don’t you?
Like I said, the list was close, but seemed a little out of date.
I remember when the Israelis upgraded their Phantoms with new cockpits, avionics and radars, the radars from Norden before they became part of Westinghouse and then Northrop Grumman. Norden was late, really late, delivering those radars.
Sure, but why bother going through the Israelis if the parts are available on the black market, when the Israelis would have needed to get them that way as well?
These cases could be put to use instead of just arresting a few bozos.
Properly the Air Force MI people should have been brought in along with the CIA/NSA.
What ever parts were requested by Iran for example should have been mailed to them. With offers of even bigger better things. You know there are various components on modern aircraft that function as “The Jesus Bolt”. Parts that if they suffer catastrophic or maybe even partial failure will make a mess of things very fast.
The old Air Force and CIA would have on order taken the time to manufacture custom parts designed to fail at critical times.
We should never have heard of this ..
W
The German Weapons-Smuggling Scandal: Opportunities for Merkel (F-14 parts to Iran)
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